Thinking of treating birds and other exotic pets at your veterinary hospital? Exotics can be a great practice builder. However, if you’re considering seeing exotics there are many factors to consider before you commit to adding feathers and scales to your patient list.

Equip yourself

Like any other service your hospital offers, exotic pet care—whether birds, small mammals (ferrets, rabbits, rodents), reptiles, amphibians, wildlife or uncommon species (hedgehogs, pot-bellied pigs, sugar gliders, prairie dogs)—will only be worth it if you can charge appropriately for it. And the way to feel justified charging for exotic pet services is to spend time studying bird and exotic animal diseases and treatment and to acquire basic equipment to diagnose and treat these pets.

Dr. Laurie Hess: How the team can help market your practice—a must if you see exotics

Laurie Hess, DVM, DABVP (Avian) is here to remind you that images and words from the front line tell compelling stories. She says no one is better poised to collect shareable moments that veterinary technicians. Learn more about how you can involve your team here.

Of course, the amount you spend on equipment will be proportional to the depth of exotic pet care you aim to provide, but here’s some basic equipment you’ll need:

> Small syringes (insulin- and tuberculin-sized) with small needles (33- and 25-gauge, respectively)

> An infusion pump that can deliver fractions of a milliliter of fluid per minute

> A variety of towels, from washcloths to bath-sized, to restrain pets

> A nearby pharmacy that can compound drugs into small volumes

Once you’ve set yourself up with basic equipment and educated yourself with a general knowledge of bird and exotic pet diseases and treatment, it’s a matter of time and practice to make exotic pet services profitable.

For reference, I’ve been treating solely birds and exotics for 18 years and now have an active client base of about 3,500 exotic pet owners. Depending on the species I’m treating, my average transaction fee is about $375. So, done correctly, exotic pets can be quite profitable.

On the next page, find resources to educate yourself and your team on exotic pet care.

Educate yourself

Above are great tools for practice, but you know your best tool in practice is your brain. Here are my go-to resources for learning about, diagnosing and training to treat more exotic pets: